Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, January 23, that Stockholm should stop having the “support” of Turkey to enter the Atlantic Alliance, after the burning of a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Text: Andres Mourenza
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has buried Swedish aspirations to join NATO. After a series of demonstrations in Stockholm in which a doll symbolizing the Turkish president was “executed”, protests in front of the Turkish embassy with flags of the Kurdish armed group PKK and the burning of a Koran in front of the diplomatic legation , Erdogan has said he will not lift his veto on Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance, although he is keeping the door open for Finland.
“In other words, you let terrorist organizations run wild in your streets and then you expect us to support you in joining NATO. It will not happen,” Erdogan said.
Negotiations with Turkey have been going on since last June and have led Sweden and Finland to modify their anti-terrorism laws and agree to review the extradition requests of dozens of Turkish citizens who are refugees in these countries but who Ankara considers terrorists.
All in all, various analysts believe that Turkey could modify its veto after the elections next May in which Erdogan is at stake to continue as president after twenty years in power and for which the polls predict a tight result against the opposition.
Finland should consider the option of joining NATO without Sweden, its foreign minister said for the first time on Tuesday after Turkey ruled out approving the Swedish candidacy.
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members that have not ratified the historic decision by Sweden and Finland to break their tradition of military non-alignment in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban promised that his parliament would approve the accession of both Nordic countries in February.
*Read also: NATO Summit officially invites Sweden and Finland to join the alliance
angry turkey
Swedish-Danish far-right extremist Rasmus Paludan was allowed to demonstrate outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm last Saturday, and this caused great anger in the Turkish government.
In the midst of an important police deployment and protected by metal barriers, the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant activist burned a copy of the Koran.
The spokesman for the Turkish presidency, Ibrahim Kalin, condemned an “overt hate crime.”
The Swedish government reacted with extreme caution to the demonstrations by the Turkish government.
“I cannot comment tonight on the statement. First I want to understand exactly what was said,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told the local TT news agency.
On Friday, the Swedish police had considered that, for the sake of the Constitution and the freedom of demonstration and expression in Sweden, the demonstration should be allowed and that it did not pose any danger to public order.
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